Israel to release 350 Palestinian prisoners

The Israeli government yesterday gave the green light for the release of some 350 Palestinian prisoners, in a move designed to provide further momentum to the fledgling peace process.

The cabinet agreed by 13 votes to eight a motion authorising the releases on the basis of a list drawn up by the Shin Beth security service.

The list had been drawn up at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is keen to make a goodwill gesture to his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas, who made the releases a key demand at their meeting last Tuesday.

The cabinet laid down precise criteria which must be met for prisoners to be released and insisted that a final decision on their freedom would be made by an inter-ministerial commission.

The Shin Beth list is made up of 350 names, according to military radio, which represents a little more than five per cent of the total number of detainees. ");document.write("

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Some 215 are classified as administrative detainees who have been kept in custody without trial for renewable periods of three to six months on the orders of the military.

The remaining 135 are currently serving prison sentences but have not been convicted of taking part in attacks which led to casualties, according to military radio.

Initial reaction from radical Palestinian groups, who recently announced a truce conditional on the release of all prisoners, was less than enthusiastic.

A senior Hamas official said today that the move was "insufficient" while Islamic Jihad said the Israelis were giving false hope to families of detainees.

"We demand the liberation of all the detainees and in particular those from Hamas and we are not prepared to accept discrimination in this regard," Hamas official Ismail Hanyeh told AFP.

But he said that the move represented a "first step" while reiterating that the release of "all those in detention" remained a condition of the ceasefire agreed last weekend.

A senior official from Islamic Jihad, another signatory to the truce, criticised the "Zionist manoeuvre" and accused the Israeli government of "playing with the hopes of families".

The issue provoked heated debate within the Israeli cabinet, with a number of ministers from Sharon's Likud party opposing the move. A first vote was inconclusive and the motion was amended before a second vote was taken.

The issue of prisoner releases is seen as one of the biggest obstacles to progress in the peace process and observers have predicted that it could derail the militant groups' truce with widely different expectations over the numbers that could go free.

The importance of the issue was underlined when around 3,000 protesters gathered in the centre of Gaza City today to demand the release of Palestinian prisoners.

"There can be no peace or security without freedom for prisoners," chanted the demonstrators in a peaceful protest around the local headquarters of the Red Cross.